Alaska News Nightly: April 4, 2012

Individual news stories are posted on APRN News page. You can subscribe to APRN’s news feeds via email, podcast and RSS.

City Clerks Office Reviews Voting Problems
Daysha Eaton KSKA – Anchorage & Annie Feidt, APRN – Anchorage

The Anchorage city clerks office is calling the voter turn out in yesterday’s election “unprecedented.” The office is investigating the election- working today to figure out which voting precincts ran out of ballots. Voters reported widespread ballot shortages. Mayor Dan Sullivan was reelected by a wide margin. But his main challenger Paul Honeman, is not conceding given the voting irregularities.

Bethel Judge Removed From Bench
Angela Denning-Barnes, KYUK-Bethel

For the first time in Alaska history, there is a
recommendation to remove a judge from the bench, permanently.
Senate Passes Budget
Dave Donaldson, APRN – Anchorage
The State Senate has finished work on its operating budget for next year. And the measure passed unanimously in a floor vote this afternoon.  In presenting the bill,  Finance Co-Chair Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat from Bethel, said the plan spends a total of nearly 9.5 billion dollars more than $6 billion of that from state revenue.
Cleveland Volcano Acts Up
Associated Press

The Alaska Volcano Observatory says a small explosion at Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands may have sent up a small ash cloud. Clouds prevented satellite observation of an ash cloud.

Fisheries Panel Moves to Protect Undersea Canyons
Steve Heimel, APRN – Anchorage

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council yesterday directed its staff to do a scientific review of evidence that some areas of the Bering Sea are such rich fish habitat they should be protected.  The Council was looking at close to thirty thousand letters and comments from tribes, environmental groups and even a supermarket chain, urging them to protect Pribilof and Zemchug Canyons.

U.S. and Russian Coast Guards Work Together
Rosemarie Alexander, KTOO – Juneau

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo and his Russian counterpart Lieutenant General Rafael Daerbaev today signed an agreement calling for continued cooperation on law enforcement in the Arctic, Bering Sea and North Pacific.

Courts To Consider FASD Mitigations
Rosemarie Alexander, KTOO – Juneau

The Alaska Senate today (Wednesday) unanimously passed a bill giving judges the ability to consider Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders as a mitigating factor in sentencing for non-violent crimes.

Rural Hazardous Waste Problems
Mike Mason, KDLG – Dillingham

How do you dispose of hazardous waste in rural Alaska?  At least some of the answers were given during a large science conference held last week in Dillingham.

Yupik Dancers Wow Neatherlands Festival
Robert Woolsey, KCAW – Sitka

Some  students at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka recently went on a field trip , the kind of field trip we all might like to take, if we didn’t mind dancing in front of thousands of people. Eight members of the school’s Yup’ik dance ensemble traveled to the Netherlands in January to perform at a cultural festival. And on their way home, they stopped in Rotterdam and Paris to hold workshops on traditional Yup’ik dance.

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